


doubt truth to be a liar

by bigstarkenergy



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Backstory, Character Study, First Kiss, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, basically arthur marvels at eames, eames is fire and smoke and all good and all awful things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-24 20:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22043611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigstarkenergy/pseuds/bigstarkenergy
Summary: Eames could do more with a smile than a dozen men could with rifles.Arthur should know; he’s been well acquainted with both.
Relationships: Arthur/Eames (Inception)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 89





	doubt truth to be a liar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nasa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nasa/gifts).



> for willa, who was the first person who truly introduced me to this ship and is, as a whole, exceptional.

The problem with Eames, not that there aren’t several, but the _main_ problem with Eames, the reason why Arthur always slips out of bed in the dead of night, the reason why Arthur puts up wall after wall, the reason why Arthur turns his face to the light instead of Eames, is because Eames isn’t like him.

Eames isn’t boxed off and closed up. He wears his hearts on his sleeve, slipping from forge to forge, each of them a burnished, polished part of him. Every forge is as real as the next, from the blonde bombshell to the tired old man. He crafts all his forges around his own personality and experiences; he pulls apart his soul and creates people from the fragments.

He loves.

You have to, to be as good a forger as Eames is. Because it doesn’t matter whether your mark wears a silver watch or a gold one, it doesn’t matter if you get every detail right. You have to love them. You have to love each and every one of them. You have to love them or hate them, and even hate is a form of love, in and of itself. You have to love, wildly and freely and you have to _understand_ people, and all their facets.

On a good day, Arthur barely understands himself.

And Eames, Eames terrifies him so wholly that sometimes Arthur looks at him and feels the taste of iron fill his mouth, bloody and thick. Sometimes, Arthur looks at him and feels fire licking at his fingertips, addictive.

Because somewhere underneath the blood and flesh and ink, Eames is something Arthur can’t even begin to understand. He’s lies and truth wrapped up in paisley, with a plaid hat to match. Eames is creativity and sparks, ideas and imagination to spare, competent and deadly and dangerous. He’s dangerous, and not just because he can take out projections just as well as Arthur can, he’s dangerous, and not just because Arthur can never seem to stop his heart steady when he’s nearby.

He’s dangerous because he’s Eames.

He’s dangerous because every time Arthur sees him, all he wants to do is forget dreamshare and run away, to where no one will ever find them. He’s dangerous because he makes Arthur forget who he _is_. Eames is single-handedly the most dangerous person Arthur has ever met, and Arthur works with criminals, thieves, murderers.

Eames could do more with a smile than a dozen men could with rifles.

Arthur should know; he’s been well acquainted with both.

Eames is dangerous because he leans in-all fire and disaster and ruin-and smiles before he presses his lips to Arthur’s.

Eames is dangerous because even though Arthur knows he should pull away, should say “No,” all he can do is grip the front of one of Eames’s ridiculous shirts and whisper “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from Shakespeare's Hamlet, because even though i didn't want to be that bitch, i am that bitch.
> 
> other honorable mentions for titles were: When words fail, music speaks. / I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul -Pablo Neruda, Sonnett XVII / I do love nothing in the world so well as you—is not that strange? -William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing 
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoy this! my tumblr is @natasharxmanov and kudos and comments are much appreciated!


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